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A group to explore Edo and the Tokugawa Period ~ its culture and history |
Edo History
(- threads, 24 posts)
 Glossary of terms
Historical Thread
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A resource in progress
| ageya | 'Houses of assignation' (brothels) |
| bijin-e (modern: bijinga 美人画) | Lit. 'pictures of beautiful women.'; images that depict the beauty of the appearance, manners, and customs of women. The Kansei era (1804-1830) thought to be the golden age of this type of imagery (represented by the work of Kiyonaga, Utamaro and Eishi). |
| 'brides of the night' | A term used to describe ceremonies staged to promote the illusion of a marital arrangement between an oiran and her client. After initial 'wedding', love poems were exchanged akin to the ancient courtly courtship. Monogamy was expected with the oiran assuming roles of entertainer, companion as well as lover. |
| bunraku | One of the styles of Japanese puppet theatre dating from the beginning of the Edo period. The name came to be used as a generic title for all puppet theatre. |
| bushido | Samurai philosophy lit. 'the way of the warrior'; a philosophy with its roots deep in Buddhism, Zen, Confucianism, and Shintoism |
| choutei | Imperial court |
| ehon | Erotic books |
| geisha | Entertainer providing music and dance |
| geta | Traditional wooden sandals |
| geza | The slatted musicians room at the far left of the stage in Kabuki plays where the various types of background music are performed |
| han | Domain ruled by a daimyo |
| hokan | Freelance entertainer trained in many kinds of music, dance and story-telling styles |
| kamuro | Child attendants (of the oiran) |
| kôshi | High-class courtesans |
| maiko | An apprentice geisha |
| makurae | 'Pillow pictures'; sexually explicit ukiyoe also known as 'shunga' or 'spring pictures' - a genre that sidestepped the repressive attempts of government to ban erotic pictures ; it also allowed the artists an opportunity to employ expensive materials and production techniques otherwise prevented by restrictions on types of colours and paper used. Privately commisioned works such as the makura/shunga offered the artists a rare and unfettered opportunity to indulge their creative talent freely which is why shunga images achieved such a high artistic quality |
| makurabon | Pillow books or more commonly referred to as 'shunpon' or 'spring books' |
| Nakanochô | The central street in the Yoshiwara pleasure district |
| nanshoku | 'Male love'; homosexual love/homosexual relationships. Unattached males made up one quarter of Edo's population. |
| nishiki-e 錦絵 | 'Brocade pictures'; a style of ukiyoe originating in Edo; polychrome pictures employing highly sophicated techniques of gradation, tinting and embossing |
| nyoshoku | 'Female love'; heterosexual love (referenced from male perspective?) |
| onnagata | Actors who specialise/d in female roles in Kabuki |
| ronin | 'wave men' - masterless samurai; usually samurai served a particular daimyo, but if their lord died, or times were hard, many samurai were forced to become ronin and ply their wares wherever they could find some work sometimes turning to banditry when times were hard |
| saiken | A published directory of names and ranks of those working in the Yoshiwara |
| sancha | Mid-class courtesans |
| sharebon | A book of manners; a type of manual for pleasure seekers |
| shinzo | Junior courtesans |
| Shirobei | Traditional name of the gatekeepers of the Yoshiwara; part of a managerial team who collectively policed the quarter and issued permits for female residents to leave. These men worked under a council of ward leaders who conducted administrative affairs such as census taking, tax collection, and law enforcement, which the central Edo government more or less left to the Yoshiwara itself to handle. |
| tayű | The highest rank ever given to a courtesan |
| tenryou | Tokugawa demesne |
| Torinomachi Festival | Occurred in the Eleventh Month; during this festival the Yoshiwara's three emergency gates were opened and anyone, including ordinary women who were otherwise prohibited, could enter the grounds. |
| tsuke | The process of beating two wooden blocks onto a board at the far right of the stage in Kabuki and done so to punctuate such movements as Mie poses, walking running and also tachimawari |
| uchikake | Ceremonial outer garment of court ladies in the Edo period, also referred to as the Kaidori. It differed from the kosode in that no obi was used and the back was completely covered with a very large, attractive design |
| ukiyo-e 浮世絵 | 'Floating world pictures' |
| waka 和歌 | Japanese poetry |
| yarite | Female supervisor of a brothel |
